Europe warming faster as cleaner air removes cooling pollution effect

A surprising factor is accelerating Europe’s warming: cleaner air. Decades of pollution control have stripped away the cooling effect of industrial haze, exposing the full force of greenhouse gas-driven heating, according to a study published in Earth’s Future in July 2025.

Senior researcher Joonas Merikanto of the Finnish Meteorological Institute explains that past industrial emissions acted like a mirror, reflecting sunlight and making clouds more reflective, which masked some of the warming. As air quality improves, that shielding disappears.

Merikanto stresses that reducing air pollution remains critical for public health, as poor air quality is linked to severe health risks. “Clean air does not cause climate change,” he says. “The increase in heatwaves is a clear effect of greenhouse gases.”

Europe is warming faster than the global average, with land areas heating more rapidly than oceans and drought reducing the cooling effect of evaporation. The latest Indicators of Global Climate Change assessment found human-induced warming reached about 1.37°C above pre-industrial levels in 2025, with a decadal rate of roughly 0.27°C between 2016 and 2025.

Not all extreme weather responds uniformly to warming. While evidence for more frequent heatwaves is strong, the increase in tropical cyclones is less certain—though warmer seas and atmosphere intensify the strongest storms. Super Typhoon Bavi, which devastated parts of the Northern Mariana Islands on 6 July, may have drawn extra energy from unusually warm ocean waters.

Current emissions trajectories suggest the worst-case scenarios are now unlikely, and global emissions may be near their peak. However, existing measures still fall short of the Paris Agreement targets, Merikanto notes.